Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/101

89 LANGUAGE.] HOLLAND 89 (pronounced nearly as the High Gennan cu, English oi/), except before r and u; where the ti. keeps the sound it. Middle Dutch oi also passed into ui (sloicr, slider), just as id alter consonants : hid (hwci), duit (thwcit). From the common German il thus arose the Middle Dutch u in duvc, duscnt, mues, and in the verbs sugcu, supen, luken, corresponding to the Modern Dutch ui in didzend, duif, inuis, ztdgcn, zuipcn, luikcn (in which the High German has au, Old High German u). The words in which the Saxon has the umlaut have in Middle Dutch likewise u, but in Modern Dutch ui: Middle Dutch budcl, surer, lustercn; Modern Dutch buidd, zutier, lidstcren; Saxon budel, ziiver, lusteren, &c. In Modern Dutch mod, snoet, knoest, &c., have oe along with forms in ui (mid I, snuit, knuist). In the Saxon dialect, oe (u) and il occur in some cases in the oblique cases (knoest, pi. kniistc). The same thing takes place in the strong verbs, which in Anglo-Saxon have u, in Old High German io (Modern Dutch buigcn, Anglo-Saxon bugan, Old High German biogan) ; the Saxon dialects have here some times u (biigen, sliitcni, sometimes oe (kroepen, schocven}. Old Gennan iu passes before the suffix a into eo, io, and finally in Middle Dutch and Modern Dutch into ie (dicr, biedcn, kiezcn). Before r Middle Dutch has the il frequently along withic (onghicre, ongehure) ; Modern Dutch duur along with dierbaar (Belgian duurbaar), vuitr (from viwar) along with vier. Sometimes ie changes into c: dcemoedig, (diemoediij, diencn), dre as well as dric, hcdcn and Modern Dutch huiden (Cosijn, Noord en Zuid, i. 219). In some cases ui comes from the degradation of ai or i, especially in words borrowed from the French (J ndten, Fr.frite, Lat.J rictare; fornuis, Fr. fornaise, Middle Datchfornays). If an original cu is followed by j, i, or u, then cu becomes iu, Middle Dutch u, Modern Dutch ui: beduden, dutsch, ludcn, Modern Dutch bcduiden, didtsch, linden, along with which, however, exist the forms dutsch (derived from diet), lieden, bcdieden, which must be ascribed to the influence of the Flemish and Zealand dialects. To this influence must also be assigned the ie before r and Zin strong verbs of the first class which originally had a (stierf, hielp, &c. ), while the reduplicative verbs in the preterite have ie, just as in Middle German and Modern German it is produced through contrac tion, according to analogy, and passes before double consonants into I (sliep, ving). Ie further indicates a lengthened i and * in syllables on which the chief accent falls (fabrick, fubrieken), while i is used for short i and in unaccented syllables, or, it may be, for short i in closed syllables (fabrikant, sikkd, midden, binden}. The long i is indi cated by ie, where ij (which was originally the sign of t, and in Middle Dutch and the dialects is still so pronounced) passes over into ai and ei through dialect influence, but retains the written form ij: sij.y a (Eng. siskin), party, pijn, ijs, &c. In some words in which the original i sound has been preserved, t is al.so expressed by ie (gerief, wicrook, kiem, &c. ). The sounds in Dutch which are the most difficult for foreigners to pronounce are the aspirated g, the ch after vowels, the sch before vowels, and v. This last letter is pronounced by the Germans either as w or as/, and they also usually confound b and p as initial consonants. Of the vowels, the most difficult is the ui, which is almost never pronounced with perfect accuracy by a foreigner. The ij and ei are generally sounded too closely like ai. Grammar. In Middle Dutch the different noun-stems are divided into two principal classes : (1) a combination of the various vowel stems, which have more or less lost their individual characters, though here and there, in particular expressions and dialects, the difference of the stems makes itself apparent ; and (2) a consonantal declension, that of then stems the other consonantal stems having been assimilated partly to the n stems and partly to the vowel stems. Gradually, however, the two classes begin to be confused with each other; thus in the vowel stems s completely ousts the c as a sign of the nominative plural, and consequently acquires a plural signifi cance as well a^ en, so that (with some exceptions, like graaf, hertog, &c., and adjectives employed as substantives) sand en are in Modern Dutch used indifferently as plural terminations, the selec tion mainly depending on the nature of the foregoing consonant. In the words already mentioned graaf, hccr, vorst, &c. , and in compounds like gracenkroon, hancnkaiii, the genitive termination en is preserved. The s of the genitive is employed in feminines whenever the qualified word stands after it, as moedcrskind; with this exception, the s, especially in the spoken speech, is almost entirely superseded by the periphrasis van den ; des heercn becomes van den hcer, the two forms having the same meaning, which is not the case in High German. Neuters have iu the plural the same inflexion as masculines ; but they more frequently than these have the plural termination -er, corrupted, however, to -crs or -eren (kind, /cinders or kindercn), no plural termination in -er alone being now recognized. Some words, which in the singular had a parallel form with another termination, have the plural according only to one form : stad and stcdc, for ex ample, have the plural stcdcn. In some cases (as srJn p, plur. sdifpen ; smid, plur. smedcn) the plural form has not yet been explained. In the dialects, especially in the Saxon, the older forms, more particu larly of the plural, are still in force ; and there is still a certain dif- fi U-nce between the several stems : boom, pi. bcumc (borne); gast, gcste. The old genitive and dative forms are only retained in individual expressions, as den lande, des huizes, &c. ; in all other cases the genitive and dative are expressed by the prepositions van or aan. The accusative is like the nominative, while in the neuter the dative also without aan is like the accusative. From the similarity of the dative and accusative masculine and neuter of the article great similarity has arisen in the government of the prepositions ; it is only in a few expressions (mcltcrdaad, van gocdcn huizc) that the original cases have been maintained ; in all other instances voor, van, door, met, &c., govern the accusative. In Middle Dutch this confusion had not advanced so far. The dropping of the n at the end after vowels a special peculiarity of Hollandsch has given rise to great neglect of the genders in the spoken language ; and this confusion has even made itself felt in the literary style, though it is kept in check by the Saxon dialects, which are strongly conser vative in this respect. The singular of the second pers-onal pronoun du (still used in Middle Dutch) has been displaced by the plural gij, which was originally used out of politeness; and U derived from Uwc JEddheid is now employed as the honorific. As dative and accusative of gij, jon is familiar in the spoken language (Eng. you, Goth. jus). The thud person has, as in English, for the masculine hij (hi), thus diverging from the High German ; the neuter is Jiet. The form in use for the neuter article also sounds hct ; this hct is due to the fact that the abbreviation t for the pronoun het and for the article dat was the same,- a coincidence which led to an erroneous identifica tion. In Middle Dutch the reflexive pronoun was hem ; Modern Dutch (agreeing in this with the Old Frankish psalms) has zich. Though the strong verbs and the various classes of weak verbs are always kepi separate, many verbs have become through association of ideas almost unrecognizable. Strong verbs have become wholly or partially weak : bannen, bande, gcbannen ; spannen, spande, gespan- nen ; hden, hcclde, vcrholcn and verheeld, besejfen, bescfte, bcseft (Middle Dutch besicf, beseven) ; weak verbs have become strong : jagcn (Middle Dutch jaagde), jocg and jaagde, gcjaagd ; schenden, schond,gcs.:honden;zendcn(see above); prijzen&ndurijzen passthrough the ij (the weak) into the strong i class (Middle Dutch, prisde, wisde ; Modern Dutch, _pra:s, wees, gcprczen, gcicezen. lubelijden, beluidde, Middle Dutch bdten, bcltde, the d of the preterite found its way into the present also and into the infinitive ; and the bcltdcn, Modern Dutch bclijden, thus formed passed into the i class of strong verbs. The a of ward, the preterite ofwcrdcn, has passed into wcrd, and the plural has through analogy become iccrdcn, the present being ik word and the infinitive woidcn. The first class of strong verbs has before n + a consonant i in the stem of the present (binden) or else e (hdpen), this c remaining throughout the conjugation of the present (hij hdpt, not, as in High German, hilft). In the preterite the a has changed into o through the influence of the plural, as has already been mentioned under o. The conjunctive or optative is frequently neglected even in Middle Dutch ; in the living language it is some times used after certain verbs and conjunctions (op dat and ten cinde), but in expressing a wish it is sometimes peri phrased by mogen or latcn, and it is very frequently displaced by the indicative. The High German construction of the verb with zich to express a passive idea is contrary to the genius of Dutch, which employs the periphrastic passive form hct u:ordt daar yevondcn instead of es findct sich da (Fr. il se trourc la ). The formation of the future likewise differs from that of the High German, the auxiliary being not wcrden but zullen (Eng. shall) : ik zal hct docn = both / shall do it and / will do it. Much of the vocabulary of Middle Dutch has now become obsolete. Some words have altogether disappeared: dorpcr, dorpcrlike (Modern Dutch, gemccn), gracn (knerel), grein (kern, excellent person), ontstaen (afwaditen), ors (paard), ourbacr (nut). Others have changed their meaning : cousc, &quot;breeches,&quot; now &quot;liose&quot;; dene, &quot;few,&quot; now &quot;small&quot;; onnoo:d, &quot;innocent,&quot; now &quot;half witted&quot;; slechf, simple,&quot; now &quot;wicked&quot;; bcprocxcn, &quot;to prove,&quot; now &quot;to attempt&quot;; crane, weak,&quot; now &quot;sick.&quot; Many new native words have grown up in connexion with trade, industry, art, and science ; many foreign words have also been in troduced, such as those taken from the French with the suffixes eeren, ick, iff; and many words from the dialects have received rights of citizenship. For n fuller survey of the history of Dutch, the reader is referred to W. Dwight Whitney s Language and its Study, and the excellent translation of it by J. IS. Vinckerg, Taal en Taalttudte, w getii de Si/e uittjare, .or ffederlanders bewerkt. The grammar of the current speech may be studied in the Spraaklumten of Kern, P J. Cosijn, Van Ilcltcn. For the explanation of Middle Dutch words and forms, see the papers of De Vries, Verwijs, and Veidam in the Taahjids. the Taal- en Lttterbode, and the Taalkundigt Bijdragen; De- Vrtes, Sfiddelnederlandtehe Taal- zuitering; the cditionsof ttteSpieyhel llistoi-iael by Maeilimt, of I)e Hose, William van Hlllegaerdsberg, Sejfhelyn ; and the JtiMmtheek tan Middelnederlandtch* Letterkunde, by II. K Moltzer. For explanation and history of words of the current language seethe Woordenboek der Xed Jial, by De Vries, Te Wlnkel.ic. The old Saxon and Frankish forms are treated by Kern in Taal- en Letterbodt, Cosijn in the Ottd Frank. J salmeii, Gallic in Alttachiitf/tt Laut- nml Fterionslehrt (1st part). A good survey of the orthography is given in D^ Vries and Te AVinkel s (IronMeginselen der Nedirlandulu Spelling and Wourtteniiitt root- d Spelling dtr A eder/andsc/te Taal. (J. B. V. J. H. G.) XIT 12